CHEYENNE — As Lt. Col. Jason Koltes zipped up his G suit, smiling at the prospects of another dance across the sky, he looked at Champ Bailey standing a few feet away and made a prediction.

“It won’t be like anything he has ever experienced; the ride of his life,” Koltes said. “We’re going to put him through the wringer. There’s nothing like it.”

And with that, Koltes climbed into his F-16 fighter and took the Broncos’ 11-time Pro Bowl selection for a ride Monday that capped Bailey’s afternoon with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. Bailey was airborne for roughly an hour, time spent at almost the speed of sound. Koltes said he topped out at 630 mph.

“Yes, I was nervous,” Bailey said afterward. “To see what these guys do up close was unbelievable. I’ve always wanted to do it.”

Maj. Nicholas Holmes, a Highlands Ranch High School graduate in his second year of a two-stint with the Thunderbirds, said the “max climb,” the vertical climb just after takeoff, is when those riding in the team’s only two-seat jet realize what’s in store.

“The acceleration is ridiculous, just ridiculous, almost unfathomable,” Holmes said. “You have a 30,000-pound aircraft that can climb vertically and still accelerate while you’re doing it. It’s not an ordinary experience.”

Bailey boldly made it where Broncos coach John Fox didn’t go earlier this year. Fox had been scheduled to have a ride-along with the Thunderbirds in Colorado Springs in May, but a mechanical problem grounded the jet that day. Afterward, some members of the Thunderbirds team came to a Broncos minicamp practice.

“That’s when I met some of them and I told them I might be interested in trying to go,” Bailey said. “Next thing I know, I’m in the room (Monday) and they’re explaining how to eject if something happens.

“I wasn’t sure about all this when they were going through the procedures, how he would say ‘Bail out’ three times if something happened and how you had to pull the lever to eject and all that … how we would just have a nice talk on the way down if the parachutes were out.

“My life was in the best hands possible, and when we got in the cockpit I wasn’t worried at all. I was just anxious, and then he hit it at the end of the runway, and it was ‘Whoa.’ We were straight up, and he rolled it over and you could see how far away the ground was already.”

Bailey started his day with a brief meeting with the Thunderbirds’ flight surgeon, then was fitted with his G suit, helmet and other equipment. Bailey was then given the safety briefing, which included instruction on how to eject and what to do if he had to vomit in one of the three bags that were provided.

“But no, I didn’t throw up,” Bailey said, laughing.

Koltes then explained the flight plan, which included a flyover of Camp Guernsey, a joint training center in southeastern Wyoming. It also included some of the stunts the full team will do Wednesday at Cheyenne Frontier Days, as well as some combat maneuvers.

Koltes said Bailey earned his “9G pin” for asking to try a maneuver that would cause the two to feel 9 G’s, or nine times the force of gravity.

“It was like having a bunch of people standing on you. You couldn’t breathe, you couldn’t move, you couldn’t do anything. It was like you were frozen, smashed into the seat,” Bailey said. “I don’t know how those guys keep flying the plane, but (for Koltes it) was like he was parking a car.

“But when he was acting like we were chasing somebody, that was intense. We were going 6 G’s, 7 G’s for like a full minute at a time.”

After the flight, Bailey posed for pictures, signed autographs and shook hands with the Thunderbirds ground crew and some members of Wyoming Air Guard who recently helped fight forest fires in Colorado.

“I’ll tell the other guys about this, but I’m going to scare ’em some, make them think I really did something,” Bailey said. “I’m honored they took me along for the ride.”

WASHINGTON — Thirty games into the 82-game NHL season, and nearly six weeks after the Matt Duchene trade, Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic discussed the state of his team before Tuesday’s 5-2 loss at the Washington Capitals.